Play Esteban, Zia and Tao through numerous tricky levels full of puzzles, traps and infiltration phases in a wide variety of diverse gorgeous settings. Explore every nook and cranny of China, and escape Zarès’ hostile men, searching for the local City of Gold.

The Mysterious Cities of Gold vásárlása

Kurátorok, akik ajánlják

"The graphics and cut-scenes respect the classic anime splendidly. Puzzles are as easy as they are fun, with unlockables. For some, good warm nostalgia."

A játékról

Play Esteban, Zia and Tao through numerous tricky levels full of puzzles, traps and infiltration phases in a wide variety of diverse gorgeous settings. Explore every nook and cranny of China, and escape Zarès’ hostile men, searching for the local City of Gold.

Faithful to the story-line and art style of the famous Mysterious Cities of Gold anime cartoon, Secret Paths lets you dig deep in this wonderful cross-media universe. You get to play with all the main characters, and each hero has his own set of qualities that you will need to use smartly when approaching the different challenges. Pick between them wisely - Their personality matters!

Key features

Gorgeous graphics completely faithful and loyal to the original Mysterious Cities of Gold art style that we all love.

Numerous tricky levels: Expand the Mysterious Cities of Gold cartoon universe by playing the levels that unlock for free at the same pace the episodes air on television.

Beautiful settings: Explore various environments, from the deep asian forests, to the heart of the Forbidden City, to the mythic Chinese City of Gold.

The Mysterious Cities of Gold: Secret Paths is a children point & click adventure puzzle game. After the events in South America, you follow Esteban, Zia and Tao as they travel across China in search of the second City of Gold.

Pros: This is a bright and colorful adventure game, the 3D graphical style very respectful of the 2D anime it follows. Each character has a unique ability, and you must swap between them while traveling through labyrinths of jungle, caves and palaces, avoiding capture and solving puzzles to make your way across. The game is easy to pick off, perfect for any kids to learn.

Cons: Obviously meant for a touch screen, the point and clicking doesn't work as well with a mouse pointer's accuracy, often requiring several clicks to press a button, pick up an object or move exactly where you want to move. The clip-montage cinematics don't explain the story, but simply tells you at which point of the show's story you're at, so anyone who hasn't seen the Second Season won't understand most of the story or character development.

Verdict: Although many of us grew up with the First Season decades ago, the recent Second Season of The Mysterious Cities of Gold was marketed specifically for children, and this game targets that audience. Therefore, I cannot blame this game for being easy or meant for children. If you haven't seen the show, you are unlikely to find any interest in this game. But for what it's trying to do, The Mysterious Cities of Gold: Secret Paths does it justice.

I’ll start off by saying, I’ve never seen the original anime that this game is based on. I actually did not know of its existence until I stumbled onto this interesting game. I might actually want to watch the 80′s anime, the game made it seem quite interesting. Because of this, I’ll be unaffected by the “nostalgia factor” that many people had when they saw this game. Anyways, I’ve seen a lot of people purchasing this purely out of nostalgia, and learned about the show because of it; now, onto the review!

I was slightly disappointing by how the game played out. The game essentially combines puzzle elements with some scavenger hunting mechanics. That’s the entire game in a nutshell. The basic concept of the game is not that hard to understand. You’ll find yourself switching between the three main characters, Esteban, Tau, and Zia. Each character has their own special ability used for certain puzzle mechanics found scattered throughout the levels of the game. Each of these skills will have to be used in a certain pattern in order to complete a level. This ultimately results in the player wandering around looking for an object that pertains to a character’s ability, like a crack in a wall, which Zia can slip through.

The levels can easily be traversed with a free-roaming camera, marking each character with an icon and allowing you to figure out the solution to a puzzle from an easier perspective. The problem with this style of gameplay is that switching between the characters feels like a chore. You have to operate all three characters separately, each being used for their ability. Throughout the game, you pick up these “parchments”, which act as collectibles scattered throughout a level. Collecting them all gives you a gold medal at the end of the level for finding them all. The problem with this is that some of the parchments are color-coded, allowing only certain characters to pick them up. This can be a nuisance when you have one character standing on these parchments, unable to pick them up, and the actual character needed to pick them up on the opposite side of the level, awaiting their orders from the player.

The puzzles can be a bit shallow sometimes. There was one instance where a series of pressure plates were laid out in front of me, and three of them had to be activated to open the next door. Above these plates was a plaque that only Tao could read. Reading it tells you what plates to stand on, usually in the form of a riddle, which is nice, but some of them were a little too easy for my tastes. Along with the parchments that can be collected, there is a treasure chest hidden in each level. Finding the chest unlocks an illustration, just another bonus collectible to find.

It’s also worth mentioning that I ran into a game-breaking bug twice. I had to press a button to open a door, and upon pressing the button, it showed the door opening, then immediately closing. I thought I had messed up somewhere, but upon exiting and restarting the game, the door stayed open and I could continue with the game. This happened to me in the first and third worlds. Both occurring near the end of the level, which was quite annoying, having to restart the level.

The game’s graphics were awesome. In-between levels, cutscenes would play with the style of the original anime and leaves me wondering if these cutscenes were actually in the anime themselves. I’m sure fans of the original show would appreciate that. The animation for the characters was smooth, but could be clunky at times, especially when walking across platforms that can be turned with a lever. Overall, the art style was very charming and I really liked it. Although not memorable, the music was great and fit the theme of the game well.

Definately a great game for children, nice little puzzles with various environments, following the story of the second series of the programme. Xbox controller supported so it's very easy to play, although mouse and keyboard was quite easy too.

The graphics are lovely and bright, they have managed to capture the look of the series down the pixel.

Also helped teach my boy the basics of stealth gameplay, he'll be playing Dishonored in no time!

However, game itself is very enjoyable. Riddles remind me of Lost Vikings style of game.There are 5 chapters each with about 1h of play, depending how fast you are solving the challenges.Levels are not too hard but not too dumb either. Difficulty should be enough to make it a nice challenge for younger audience and good entertainment for those born in the 80 that remember original series.

Time Bought: Pre OrderedMoney Spent: $15Worth The Price?: NoPosition In Game At Time Of Review: the 2nd act in China

YES, the nostalgia kicks in once you see the 3 kids and it won't be long until you start humming the tune lol. BUT even though it may seem to totally represent the early 80s cartoon, this is in fact based upon the NEW MCoG that is currently showing on tv of their adventures in China! So DO NOT expect the same voice overs, show intro, and locations...even though a huge majority is still intact from the 80s cartoon show. Now that that's said, let's get to the actual game. It's a puzzler. Based on 3 kids alternating to solve puzzles. The puzzles are not difficult at all and doesn't take more of an elementary level of knowledge to solve. I would definitely recommend this for kids, but for grown ups I would only recommend it for people who remembered and loved the early 80s show.